Re: Optional Soundlaws (was: IE *aidh- > *aus-tr- 'hot, warm (wind)'

At 10:29:56 AM on Saturday, October 23, 2010, Rick McCallister wrote:

> From: Richard Wordingham <richard.wordingham@...>

>> --- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "dgkilday57"
>> <dgkilday57@...> wrote:

>>> I would have to be a phonological hippie to buy into the
>>> notion of "optional soundlaws". No rocket science is
>>> required to see that any word in any language could be
>>> derived from any word in the same or any other language,
>>> merely by tailoring the "optional soundlaws" to achieve
>>> the desired result. Philology would collapse into
>>> anarchy.

>> While acknowledging an optional sound law is an admission
>> of defeat, and any explanation that depends on one is
>> thereby weakened, they do appear to be real. Good
>> examples of optional sound laws include:

>> 1) The Modern English 3-way split of the reflex of OE o:,
>> e.g. Modern English _blood_, _good_ and _mood_.

> I would ask if this split is universal or only limited to
> Southern and Midlands English.

Neither. It's the general case, but Northern England and
parts of the Midlands are well-known exceptions; in those
regions the ME /U/ of <blood> (from OE /o:/) never underwent
unrounding. (Neither did the ME /U/ of <cut>, which is from
OE /u/.)

[...]

> Remember that in NYC there is the marry /meR-iy/,

No, that has /æ/.

> merry mE-Riy/ and Mary mAE-riy/

And that has /E&/. Other U.S. varieties that preserve the
distinction have [e] and [e&].

> split, but in Midwestern, Southern and Appalachian, it's
> all /meR-iy/

There are quite a few U.S. varieties in which <Mary> and
<merry> have /E/, while <marry> has /æ/.

> BTW: Does this split exist in the UK?

The split is the original state of affairs and is preserved
outside of North America. The marry-merry-Mary merger is a
merger of historical /æ/, /E/, and /eI/.

Brian